CHAPTER 14

Harry opened his eyes, he was in the hospital again.

"Why does this keep happening?" he muttered.

He tried sitting up, his head felt like it was being used as a drum; he wasn't in his uniform so he naturally assumed he had been here for more than 24 hours, he could feel the fan blowing gently on his head and he quickly touched his head in the realization that someone had shaved his head.

"Son of a.....!" he paused realising the next bed opposite his had a child in it and the mother sat close to him. The mother stared at him with a look of disgust. He looked away and made an attempt to stand up. His leg trembled and he fell back to the bed.

"Was this a dream?" he wondered, he sat there taking deep breaths. A nurse walked pass and saw him up.

"Sir, what are you doing? You should be resting" said the nurse.

"How long have I been here?" He asked.

"Please lie down, I'll go get the Doctor" she said and started heading for the door. As she left, the curtain on the right side of Harry's bed pushed open.

"Hey, you're alive. I thought they would come one day and just pick up your corpse. Harry turned back and was now staring at an Old man probably in his 90's, he wore the same hospital clothes as Harry and had no hair at the center of his head.

"How long have I been here?" Harry asked.

"Don't ask me, I just got here two weeks ago" he replied.

"Two weeks?" Harry was stunned.

"At first I thought you were a criminal because of that agent that keeps coming to see ya, then found out ye was an agent also"

"When last was she here?" Harry asked. The man began laughing.

"You agents with all ye fancy interrogation, you just waking from a coma at least let ye mind complete booting before asking dumb questions" he said still chuckling.

"When last?!" He yelled getting impatient.

"Yesterday, she came with your son" he said.

"My son?" Harry asked confused.

"Yeah, a teen with a camera...wasn't he yours?"

"Mr Fisher, glad to see you among the living" Harry turned, there was a man in a Doctor's coat standing in front of him, it wasn't the old man he saw the last time he was here.

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

"I am Doctor Smith" the man replied; he had a stern face that came off as awkward, also he never smiled as he spoke.

"Hey what happened to the other guy?" asked the old man behind Harry.

"He had a stroke at the late hours of yesterday, he is still alive but he might not make it."

"Poor man, I kinda liked him" said the old man.

"It seems you're in a hurry to take his job" Harry said.

"Well a man's got to make a living" the Doctor said. Suddenly five men rushed into the room there were dressed in agent uniform but Harry didn't recognize any.

"Yo, my man you're finally awake..." said one of the agent, he was dressed to look exactly like Eddy.

"Thank you Doctor for all your time but we will be taking over from here" he concluded.

"Excuse me but he his my patient and I..."

"Well your patient has other places to be right now" the Eddy lookalike retorted. He made a gesture and two of the standing agents grabbed Harry and dragged him with them.

"Thank you Doctor for your time" said the Eddy lookalike and followed the rest agent already leaving.

Harry followed them without saying a word he knew nothing felt right the moment he woke up but he felt safer with them than that doctor.

They dragged him into a car and blindfolded him, by the time the blindfolds came off he was in a dark room sitting on a wooden stool.

"Mr Fisher, welcome back to the living. I was beginning to think you would die on me" a voice spoke in the darkness. Harry could only make out a few dark figures standing but he recognized the voice.

A match was lit and a candle was also lit.

Harry saw that Solomon had his right cheek bandaged.

"You look surprise" Solomon said.

"So it was your men who dragged me out the hospital, but why?" Harry asked.

"Wrong question, the question you should be asking is what happened to my face?!" he spoke with anger.

"W...what happened?" Harry asked, trying not to worsen things.

"Well it definitely wasn't you and that is fact, do you wanna know why?......because you were busy sleeping in a goddamn hospital!" He threw a newspaper at Harry. Harry picked it up, the headline read "Gin triumphant at conclave as Moammi withdraws vote"

"I don't see the bad news here" Harry said.

"But that my dear is not the bad news, the bad news comes after that. You see our...sorry, my friend..has decided to clean out his closet and that includes me" Solomon said.

"So what, he sent enforcers after you?" Harry asked.

"No, even better he sent an assassin after me, and not just any assassin this guy is a professionally trained killer..."

"He did that?" Harry asked pointing to Solomon's face.

"Yes, three nights ago"

"If he's that good, how come you are still alive?" Harry asked.

"He underestimated me" Solomon said with a smile. Harry looked at the men standing behind Solomon

"What do you need then?" Harry asked.

"I need his head on a plate and his body in the gutters, don't worry about Gin I'll take care of him myself"

Harry looked down and muttered something to himself.

"Am in no condition to fight not now at least" Harry said.

"Well, you have all the time you need because these men are here to protect only me" Solomon said.

"Hold on, when did you come here?" Harry asked.

"This morning, why?"

"What if he followed you here?" Harry said. Solomon began laughing as he stood up

"That sounds like your problem....whenever you are ready to leave my fashion designer will take you home..." Solomon said as he head for the door.

"...you are already familiar with her" he closed the door and Harry sat there staring at the candle.

He took a deep breath and tried standing on his own, though his feet were shaky he was able to make it to the door, he pushed it open slowly to see who was waiting on the other side; it was Eve, she wore a black jacket with blue jeans and a pair of black shoes. She was leaning on a bike as she stared towards the now opening door.

"Hello, J" she said.

"Please tell me you are not the fashion designer" Harry said.

"How do you think the uniforms were made?....hop in" she turned on the bike as Harry approached. After Harry got on the bike they drove off.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked.

"You'll see" she replied.

Lucy was in the precinct, she had been working on a case with Sarah but she needed a few more details about the case; it was concerning a break in at the local pharmacy but according to the old man nothing valuable was stolen.

"Good afternoon, Sarah" Lucy greeted. Sarah was assembling a crossbow; ever since the archive's incident it has been her favorite weapon.

"Hey, Lucy....any progress on the case?" Sarah asked.

"That's what I came to ask you about..." Lucy took a seat opposite Sarah; they were in the women's locker room and they both sat in a bench positioned in front each lockers, making the bottom inaccessible.

"OK, so how may I help?" Sarah asked.

"The pharmacist's son said nothing valuable was taken but I asked him again this morning and he said that there were missing a bottle of something called Vaxcnin. Normally I would have asked what it was but he claims even his father doesn't know"

"His father isn't back from his trip yet?" Sarah asked as she focused her attention on the crossbow in front of her.

"No"

"Well if memory serves me correctly Vaxcnin is a drug...well not really a drug, more like nano bots ingested like pills. It was designed to fight off bacteria causing infections and even viruses but it never was released for mass consumption"

"How then do you know about it?" Lucy asked.

"In medical school we used to classify it under the extinct technological advancement, we used to believe that a drug had been invented right after Vaxcnin that made it possible for one to live up to a thousand years"

"Is that all the drug can do?" Lucy asked.

"Well, yes unless the person wasn't planning to use it for themselves"

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked.

"Well, I once read somewhere that an overdose actually induces a stroke on the patient"

"A stroke?"

"Yeah, once watched an old clip about it.....not funny at all" she said as she attached the last part of the bow.

"Thank you for your time" Lucy said, then she got up and began heading for the door.

"Hey, huh...when last did you visit Harry at the hospital?" Sarah asked as Lucy now stood outside the room.

"Yesterday, why?" Lucy asked back.

"I have a friend who works as a nurse in the hospital, she told me that Doc. Swarm had a stroke last night" Sarah replied.

"You think it has anything to do with this case?" Lucy asked.

"No...not really, just odd coincidence" Sarah replied.

"I'll look into it" Lucy said and shut the door behind her.

Lucy went up to Joshua's office; it had been a while since she spoke to him, she was still mad at him for submitting all of Ghandi's men to those enforcers. In her mind, she thought they had enough evidence to take down both Gin and Ghandi.

She knocked thrice on the door

"Come in" came the reply from inside. Lucy walked in and found Eddy seating there with Joshua

"Come in Lucy, this also concerns you" Joshua said on seeing her.

"What's this about?" Lucy asked as she slowly walked towards an empty seat next to Eddy.

"I just got a report that two agents were found dead and one of the bodies had been stripped of his uniform...as at now there are no suspect but that's not all. A substitute Doctor was found dead this morning, he was stabbed right below his left ear...what do you make of that?" Joshua asked.

"What did forensics say about how long they have been dead?" Lucy asked, now trying to get comfortable on the seat.

"Nothing yet...the bodies were brought in an hour ago" Eddy replied.

"Well for now we should assume that they are two different killers until of course we have a re...."

"Wounds were made by the same weapon, Sarah confirmed it on the scene" Eddy cut in; he had been busy with a lot of cases lately, unlike before where he laid in the office all day.

"Any connection between the victims?" Lucy asked.

"None could be established" Eddy replied; he spoke with no emotion, like it was a conversation between strangers.

"So no connection, no witnesses, no suspects and to top it all, the head doctor conveniently had a stroke last night" Lucy said.

"Wait, what do you mean by had a stroke?" Joshua asked.

"Sarah told me he had a stroke last night" Lucy said, Eddy stood up and excused himself as he ran out.

"Why is he in a bad mood?" Lucy asked after Eddy had shut the door.

"He is going through some problems at home"

"Anything we can help with?"

"No...I wouldn't worry about him,he will be fine.."

"...who I worry about is you" Joshua concluded.

"Me? Why me?" Lucy asked.

"Your visit to the hospital are getting more frequent, it concerns me" Joshua leaned forward, resting his arm on the table in front of him.

"Am just visiting a colleague" Lucy replied.

"Harry is not the kind of person you want to be seen around with, now I know I made you his partner but that was because I needed you by his side watching his every move"

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"The man survived two war zones and came out with no recollection of anything!....now its either he is lying or he is lying because there's really no other way to put it" Joshua said.

"So your reason for not trusting Harry is because you believe he doesn't want to reveal what happened?"

"No Lucy, I don't trust him because he survived two impossible odds and no amount of fortune cookies or half baked religion can make me believe it was coincidental" Lucy stood up, she wasn't willing to prolong this argument.

"I just came to let you know that I filed for a transfer.....I'll look into the murders" she said as she headed for the door; Joshua didn't bother stopping her, he knew he had to tell her his thoughts sooner or later.